President Obama sits behind the wheel of a driving simulator while touring the Federal Highway Administration's Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, Va.

President Obama sits behind the wheel of a driving simulator while touring the Federal Highway Administration's Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center in McLean, Va.

Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

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MCLEAN, VA - JULY 15: AFP OUT U.S. President Barack Obama walks out of the The Federal Highway Administration's Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center after a tour July 15, 2014 in Mclean, Virginia. According to the Department of Transportation, the center is home to '20 laboratories, data centers, and support facilities, and conducts applied and exploratory advanced research in vehicle-highway interaction, nanotechnology, and a host of other types of transportation research in safety, pavements, highway structures and bridges, human-centered systems, operations and intelligent transportation systems, and materials.' (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images) less

MCLEAN, VA - JULY 15: AFP OUT U.S. President Barack Obama walks out of the The Federal Highway Administration's Turner-Fairbank Highway Research Center after a tour July 15, 2014 in Mclean, Virginia. According ... more

Photo: Chip Somodevilla, Getty Images

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House passes short-term fix for highways as deadline nears

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Washington --

With an August deadline looming, the House voted Tuesday to temporarily patch over a multibillion-dollar pothole in federal highway and transit programs while ducking the issue of how to put them on a sound financial footing for the long term.

The action cobbles together $10.8 billion by using pension tax changes, customs fees and money from a fund to repair leaking underground fuel storage tanks to keep the federal Highway Trust Fund, which pays for transportation programs nationwide, solvent through May 2015. The vote was 367 to 55. A similar bill is pending in the Senate.

Without congressional action, the Transportation Department says that by the first week in August the fund will no longer have enough money to cover promised aid to states, and the government will begin to stretch out payments. Congress has kept the highway trust fund teetering on the edge of bankruptcy since 2008 through a series of temporary fixes because lawmakers have been unable to find a politically acceptable long-term funding plan.

The most obvious solution would be to raise the federal 18.4-cents-per-gallon gasoline and 24.4-cents-per-gallon diesel tax, which haven't been increased in over 20 years. But lawmakers are reluctant to raise taxes in an election year.

As a result, Congress has had to look elsewhere for transportation money while not increasing the federal deficit. The bill by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., relies on tax changes that are forecast to generate revenue over 10 years, but provide only enough money to keep the highway and transit programs going for another 10 months.

The largest chunk of the money, $6.4 billion, results from allowing employers to defer payments to their employee pension plans. Funding pension plans normally results in a tax savings for companies, and deferring those payments means they will pay more in taxes and increase federal revenue. But several lawmakers suggested the revenue from the pension changes is illusory.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, defended the bill while acknowledging its limits. "Listen, these are difficult decisions in difficult times in an election year," he said. "The long-term problem is still there and needs to be addressed."

President Obama, touring a transportation research center in Virginia, said he supports the House and Senate bills to keep aid flowing to states, but wants more.

"All this does is set us up for the same crisis a few months from now. So Congress shouldn't pat itself on the back for averting disaster for a few months," he said. Earlier this year, Obama offered a $302 billion plan to increase transportation spending and keep programs going for another four years. The plan, which was paid for by closing business tax loopholes, was received coolly by Republicans.

Democrats and some Republicans complained that it won't be any easier under the GOP bill to reach a compromise on sustainable, long-term means to pay for programs by pushing off a decision until next year when the presidential campaign is heating up. Republicans, however, may be in a better position to shape a transportation bill to their liking next year if they retake control of the Senate in this fall's midterm elections.